Anime you love/hate

Well just list your favorites and least favorite anime, give reasons why if you want. I wont bother giving summaries or long reviews to save time.
Favorites:

Death Note: Really the only one of the popular shonen anime I like. Mainly because I dont get why it's shonen. It lacks all the power levels that can only be written in scientific notation, people who claim to be ninjas that obviously aren't, and children's card games people take way to seriously for some reason that plague other shonen. In Death Note you have a gripping storyline that will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end, a storyline much darker and more mature themed in my opinion, compared to other shonen.

Elfen Lied: A sci-fi/horror themed anime with emotionally gripping storyline that raises questions about the dark side of human nature, particularly our tendency towards cruelty. A must-see if you can handle the violence and nudity.

Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni/Kai: Another good mystery/thriller/horror anime, plenty of edge of your seat thrills. Another must see if you don't mind extreme violence.

Black Lagoon: One of my favorite action/gun porn anime. The Hansel and Gretal arc is also emotionally stirring, it nearly brought me to tears. They never deserved to die like that....(Plots to save their lives in a fanfic, possibly a GsG crossover. Cyborg Hansel and Gretal....Balalaika you are officially fucked)

Gunslinger Girl: Obviously


Azumanga Daioh: The only slice of life anime on the list, mainly because it's the only one I find consistently funny. Haruhi was good in parts and Lucky Star was well.... see my dislikes list for my thoughts on it (sorry tsundere kagami)


Well my dislikes will be coming soon: it's almost midnight and I have to go to sleep

Favorites off the top of my head:

Black Lagoon
Lucky Star
Minami-ke
Outlaw Star
FMP Fumoffu
AMG
Scrapped Princess....

And it goes on, but those are the ones that popped into my head first.

Dislikes:

Generally anything that's overly dramatic or takes itself too seriously. I'm not a "serious" style anime fan. I'm not going to go into a list here cause I know it'd be too long again.

Far too many to list in either category, since I've been watching anime for over three decades now.

Kiskaloo wrote:Far too many to list in either category, since I've been watching anime for over three decades now.

I hear ya, sometimes I even forget I've seen the show until someone mentions it again.

In b4 Triela says she hates Naruto

Off the top of my head...

Likes (I'm going to do my top five list, there are plenty of others but I figure this is a good start):

Full Metal Panic: Socially inept teenage mercenary is assigned to go undercover to protect short tempered high school girl without her knowledge or permission. A bizarre combination of light hearted screwball comedy and deadly serious action sequences that somehow manages to develop a strong sense of reality (aside from a few bits). Indulges in plenty of anime cliches but also manages to make them fresh. For instance, their are mecha that show up in this anime, but they're far more practical then the flashy sci fi designs of other series, and can actually stand next to a real world piece of hardware and not look out of place.

Mai-HiME: I've often said that with the right writer, you can make pretty much anything work well. Mai-HiME proves that this holds true even for the magical girl genre. Having more mature characters and powers that are actually cool rather then silly helps. It's also a fantastic example of character development, as it basically starts off with a bunch of anime stereotypes and manages to turn most of them into interesting characters over time. Also, from an emotional perspective, this is one of the hardest hitting anime series I've watched, though given how much that depends on the audience getting attached to the characters, your mileage may vary. (And it should be noted that the series starts off quite light, it's only about two thirds of the way through that it starts getting really dark.)

Rocket Girls: A small framed Japanese high school girl searching for her missing dad in the Solomons gets roped into being an astronaut by a Japanese sattelite repair company because they've just had their new rocket fail testing and they need to somehow shed enough payload weight to make a successful launch with an older, underpowered rocket. Hilarity ensues. Also, one of the most scientifically accurate sci-fi anime I can think of. Yeah... it's a bit odd.

School Rumble: "So over the top, it's almost a parody of the entire adolescent experience," is about how one of my friends described this show. It's pretty crazy, but it's got a kernel of truth thrown in there as well, and it might be because of that, among other things, that it seems to ring true a little more then most of the high school comedy out there. Too bad both the sub and the dub suck on the official release (I had someone suggest we switch to my old fansubs when I was showing them this show and I kept having to explain the jokes that got lost in the official sub job).

Starship Operators: Space cadets whose planet just got conquered stage a rebellion by cutting a deal with a TV network. The network will purchase a battleship for them and provide money for supplies in exchange for the rights to the action. It's Reality TV meets embedded reporting... in space! Also, the main character is a somehwat cynical tactical genius who thinks her fellow cadets are crazy for trying this but goes along anyway. Did I mention this is a serious show, and isn't heavy on humour? It's not for everyone, and the first few episodes aren't that great, but an interesting lead character and good battle tactics are among the elements that make this series a favorite with some.

As a note, I consider a lot of my favorite anime series rather flawed, it's just that for me, the things they do well trump the flaws.

Dislikes:

Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid: A lot of people consider me a heathen for liking the first season more. However, I dislike the new art style and while a lot of people were impressed with the writing, I wasn't that much. Might have had something to do with having read a fan translation of the novels the second season was based on shortly before it aired. In particular I disliked how grossly exaggerated the lead girl's temper was compared to the source material (where she had a short fuse, but wasn't wasn't as ridiculously over the top as in this anime). There were others issues as well, but that accounts for a fair bit of the stuff.

There are a lot of other shows I'm not big on, but that one stands out for me because it's predecessor is pretty much my all time favorite anime series. Also, people heap praise on this sequel, bash the first season (which I love) and tend to skewer me for expressing a preference for the first season. So it kinds of stands out.

SPARTAN 119 wrote:
Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni/Kai: Another good mystery/thriller/horror anime, plenty of edge of your seat thrills. Another must see if you don't mind extreme violence.

Higurashi was a good anime, but I'd argue that Umineko no Naku Koro Ni is going to turn out to be the true masterpiece of the "When they Cry" franchise if it keeps being as good as it has been to date.

SPARTAN 119 wrote:Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni/Kai: Another good mystery/thriller/horror anime, plenty of edge of your seat thrills. Another must see if you don't mind extreme violence.

Can somebody please, PLEASE tell me (under spoiler tags if you wish) what the root of the mystery was? Serial killer? Bio-hazardous leak? Both?

Ok, likes... and I've probably forgotten some, so top 5 (not including GSG as that's a given):

ARIA - Female gondoliers in form fitting dresses punt godolas around 24th century Venice, on Mars.

Since I finished the first season, this little slice of life anime has held top spot of my alltime favorites, and I still can't figure out why. Nothing happens, ever, for 50 episodes, you hear me? NOTHING. Yet for some reason, after watching half an hour of nothing happening what you really feel like doing is watching another half hour of nothing happening. Maybe that's one of the reasons I like it, since there's no plot to speak of what you can spend your time doing is getting to know the characters: and in that I include the city of Neo Venizia, because it really is one of the stars. It's happy, it's cheesy, leave your cynicism at the door and relax into the beautiful soundtrack and scenery porn. As someone else once said: ARIA's not something you watch, it's a place you go. It's not for everyone, but there you have it.


Nadesico - Untill ARIA came along, Martian Successor (Mobile Battleship, pick one) Nadesico was my favorite show. I just loved the way it poked fun at everything, didn't take itself seriously... and after about the fourth watch through I realised there was actually quite a compelling story behind it as well.

LETS GEKIGAR IN!


Now it gets tough


Baccano! - It's Snatch: The Anime. I loved the story telling style of Baccano! and was impressed by how they managed to get character development in for EVERYONE despite limited episodes and a sizeable cast.


Starship Operators - Like Piero mentioned: the tactics in this one are great, and the major reason I liked it. The tactical environment very much reminds me of the Honorverse, just slower and over MUCH shorter ranges: where Amaterasu had to close range on the space rail gun, Honorverse warships would have already opened up with their last-ditch point-defence weaponry. Also enjoyed the "yes, people actually die in war" approach to the story, as well as the little salute to Nadesico for an episode or two.


eX-Driver - From the creator of Ah! My Goddess: it's the near future and transport systems are entirely automated. Cars are driven by AIs cutting congestion and preventing accidents... mostly. Every so often one will go wild, and it's up to the eX-Drivers to stop them. Of course, this is anime, so who are the only people licenced to drive a car? Teenagers! Lorna with her Lotus Europa Twincam Special and Lisa (Lancia Stratos Gr.4) are joined by Souichi and his Caterham Seven for the short 6-episode OVA. To be honest it's deeply flawed, so why do I like it? Because it appeals to my mile-wide "old cars are better" streak


Dislikes, hmm...

Nothing specific comes to mind: Princess Lover maybe (honestly I'm not even sure why I started watching it)? I guess one thing I don't really go in for a lot (though there are obvious exceptions) are shows where someone is born special. I've never been a fan of the idea that someone has to be special, or super-powered or whatever to achieve. Talent yes, hard work, yes... but just being born awesome I don't really subscribe to. Hence I never got things like Bleach etc.

Thumbs up:

Boogiepop Phantom - One word best describes Kouhei Kadono's opus: mindf*ck. This is truly one of those series that could have used a viewer's discretion warning before each episode because it's just that intense. 12 episodes, each with a ton of emotional and spiritual impact that takes weeks to fully sink in. Needless to say, after probably a dozen repeated viewings in both languages and a ton of research on the Internet, I became a Kouhei Kadono fan. I only wish it had a dedicated group like Cyborg Central to translate the countless novels in Japan, since it was recently dropped by Seven Seas after only three releases.

Most of Yoshitoshi ABe's work - Namely Serial Experiments Lain, NieA_7, and Haibane Renmei. His art style can be spotted from a mile away and coupled with Yasayuki Ueda, creates complex and meaningful anime.

Kino no Tabi - Keiichi Sigsawa's Kino is of the original girls with guns, though for some reason people often mistake her for a boy. She tours the world with her talking motorcycle and spends only three days and two nights in every country she visits. Each country is unique not only in appearance, but in its culture and people as well. Much like in the real world, some of these nations can seem backwards and brutal, but her golden rule is to just drift by and never get involved with their affairs. You'll later find out the deeper meaning behind her own strange rules and habits.

FLCL - This anime really needs no introduction, if its visual style doesn't captivate you maybe its over the top characters and incredible soundtrack by The Pillows will. Japanese animation's answer to the quintessential "coming of age" tale.

GTO - I just recently got into this anime and I'm glad I did; caught it on Funimation's onDemand channel, actually. The animation style is really odd, kinda has an early 90's look and feel to it. It's about a former gangbanger who decides to become a teacher. After bombing all of the required exams to become certified, he turns to a private school which are not required to abide by state or government regulations. As you've probably guessed, he's a kick ass teacher with unusual methods which the kids respond to. This anime touches on a personal level; I went to school in Oakland and classrooms had soo many kids that it was hard to get any personal attention from the teacher. These days it's rare for anyone to call a teacher their role model, so I thought it was refreshing.

Thumbs down:

Naruto - I generally dislike anime that runs too damn long and is merchandised to death; naturally, Naruto is one of those. I want to add DBZ to this as well, but I grew up with DBZ so even though I'm through with it, I don't want to sound like a hypocrite and all of sudden say I hate it.

Haruhi - Essentially for the same reasons as above; maybe I'm just a too cool for school type of person, but there's something about this series that just irritates me.

Texhnolyze - Notice in the Thumbs Up section where I said "Most" of ABe's work. Texhnolyze is an ABe creation, but it's just so bleak and bereft of hope that it's almost pointless. It's like a Shakespearean tragedy without the morals, philosophy, or social commentary. At least the fight scenes were particuarly good... and bloody too; you can't go wrong with cybernetic prosthetics, I suppose.

Nachtsider wrote:In b4 Triela says she hates Naruto

You know me too well. XD

Yes, the anime I most despise is Naruto, for obvious reasons: I want to shoot the main character in the face for being so annoying and whiny and "I need to be better than everyone else and I don't care" attitude. UGHHH!!!! Just thinking about Naruto makes me SO ANGRY! And those Narutards!!! >____< I'm not sure if I posted this here, so sorry if I did.

Went to an anime convention one year and I screamed "I hate Naruto" into a crowd of people, some of them Naruto cosplayrs. Tons of people turned and started at me like they were gonna kill me then and there. It was an amazing experience! XD

Gotta go to class soon. I'll list more later. ^_^

^ Strangely enough, I call myself an anime fan and yet I've never seen a single ep of Naruto. I guess I can consider myself one of the lucky few?

Anyhow, my LIKES:

The collected works of Makoto Shinkai: Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and 5 Centimeters per Second.
These three movies (especially 5cm) feature some of the most beautiful animation I've ever seen put to screen. They're thematically similar, yes. But it's the simple truth these stories tell that resonates with me: Love transcends all.

Kino's Journey - A neat little series. Philosophy, in my anime? You better believe it. Toma-kun covers the storyline upthread, so I'll just add that this is one of the most rewatchable shows out there. It's a pity the movies were never licensed.

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Say what you want about it, I've never found a series that delves deeper into its characters. And it doesn't matter if you like the characters or you hate them, you have to watch in horrified fascination as everything they know and hold dear is torn away and trampled on. Plus the movie is mind-trippingly awesome

Gunslinger Girl - Obviously. It's the subtle sense of sorrow that pervades the show. The girls aren't happy, but they try desperately to be.

DISLIKES

I can't say that there are really any shows that I despise with every fibre of my being. Maybe generic harem shows for being formulaic and retarded. Also, the overwrought angst in a show like Saikano. Basically if I don't like it I just stop watching it immediately.

Triela wrote:

Nachtsider wrote:In b4 Triela says she hates Naruto

You know me too well. XD

Yes, the anime I most despise is Naruto, for obvious reasons: I want to shoot the main character in the face for being so annoying and whiny and "I need to be better than everyone else and I don't care" attitude. UGHHH!!!! Just thinking about Naruto makes me SO ANGRY! And those Narutards!!! >____< I'm not sure if I posted this here, so sorry if I did.

Went to an anime convention one year and I screamed "I hate Naruto" into a crowd of people, some of them Naruto cosplayrs. Tons of people turned and started at me like they were gonna kill me then and there. It was an amazing experience! XD

Gotta go to class soon. I'll list more later. ^_^

I did that, a year later I wasn't president of anime club in high school.

I don't like Naruto and I sure as hell don't like Bleach. Both of those animes are responsible for the new anime fans that came into the anime club at school and ran it into the ground with their general idiocy. They were actually REPULSED when I showed the Ballad of Fallen Angels episode in Cowboy Bebop.


WTF IS THAT?!


Hell, my when my sister took over the club 4 years later she got in trouble for showing Yu-Gi-Oh the abridged series, just because Yami told some guy to come back when his balls dropped.



On to happier things.

I like:

Macross
Fist of the North Star
Mai-Otome
GSG
FMP
Black Lagoon
The Evangelion Movies (The older ones)

Kuransu: You aren't the only person who has never seen an episode of Naruto. I've managed to avoid it as well. I don't know how good or bad it really is, honestly. I do know people poke fun at it a lot.

Toma: Great Teacher Onizuka rocks! I have to admit I sometimes find some of his students a little hard to sympathise with despite their problems because of how far they take things, but it's still a pretty awesome show. The later parts of the manga are also pretty freaking awesome as well. In fact, some of the scenes in the later parts of the manga are so gloriously over the top I'm having trouble thinking of anything from the anime that can actually match them.

Also the live action GTO was pretty good at times too (excluding perhaps the DVD special) but it's more of a drama rather then an over the top comedy.

Nuke: I'm not sure if I should be saying this, but while I kind of enjoyed Mai-Otome, it was mainly in a 'so bad it's good' kind of way. I seriously thought it was a trainwreck. It was kind of trying to be Mai-HiME without being Mai-HiME, while appealing more to the otaku audience then the original did, and without the originals depth of characterisation and emotion. Actually, I consider the two to be very different series, despite one being more or less an AU spiritual successor to the other.

I do have to say though, if you liked Mai-Otome for the trainwreck factor the way I did, you need to watch the second season of Code Geass. It's from the same studio and it kicks the trainwreck and Narm factors up to eleven. It takes 'so bad it's good' to mind blowing levels.

Well.... on to the dislikes:

Naruto: Lets see, people who claim to be ninjas but aren't, annoying characters, more annoying English dub, insufferable fanboys, filler episodes galore..... I think you can see why it's on here

Lucky Star: Seriously, DO SOMETHING!!! I mean, is this supposed to be funny or entertaining!? They spend ten minutes talking about the proper way to eat a creampuff or how moé Miyuki is! This isn't funny...well not to me anyway. And don't get me started on that damn opening song, I don't think I've heard anything that annoying in my life.

Anime I like:

Gunslinger Girl: It's obviously the reason why I come here.

Kino's Journey: A unique series that shows off different philosophical elements without getting preachy over it with Kino as the neutral-minded observer.

Serial Experiments Lain: One of the first anime titles I got hooked on showing the divide between the real world and the Internet, as well as the mysteries surrounding Lain's influence in the Wired.

Koi Kaze: A well-written, albeit controversial, romance anime title that believably looks into the increasingly forbidden relationship between two siblings.

Tenchi Muyo OAVs: No harem comedy title has gotten to me as well as the Tenchi OAVs. You get to know the characters, see some crazy moments with them and see some surprising plot developments along the way.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: You want horror, mystery, and lolis thrown into a blender together? Higurashi grants your wish.

Anime I dislike:

Any anime craze title that doesn't know when to die down in hype. (Naruto, Bleach, Inuyasha, DBZ, Pokemon, etc...)

Titles that sacrifice plot and character depth for heavy amounts of fan service, blood and gore, and/or moe. While I don't mind having the three in some amounts, there needs to be a developing plot and characters for me to connect with. The above three will only carry me in a title for so long.

@Nacht: Here's the solution, Mr. Holmes:

Spoiler:

Piero wrote:Kuransu: You aren't the only person who has never seen an episode of Naruto. I've managed to avoid it as well. I don't know how good or bad it really is, honestly. I do know people poke fun at it a lot.

Toma: Great Teacher Onizuka rocks! I have to admit I sometimes find some of his students a little hard to sympathise with despite their problems because of how far they take things, but it's still a pretty awesome show. The later parts of the manga are also pretty freaking awesome as well. In fact, some of the scenes in the later parts of the manga are so gloriously over the top I'm having trouble thinking of anything from the anime that can actually match them.

Also the live action GTO was pretty good at times too (excluding perhaps the DVD special) but it's more of a drama rather then an over the top comedy.

Nuke: I'm not sure if I should be saying this, but while I kind of enjoyed Mai-Otome, it was mainly in a 'so bad it's good' kind of way. I seriously thought it was a trainwreck. It was kind of trying to be Mai-HiME without being Mai-HiME, while appealing more to the otaku audience then the original did, and without the originals depth of characterisation and emotion. Actually, I consider the two to be very different series, despite one being more or less an AU spiritual successor to the other.

I do have to say though, if you liked Mai-Otome for the trainwreck factor the way I did, you need to watch the second season of Code Geass. It's from the same studio and it kicks the trainwreck and Narm factors up to eleven. It takes 'so bad it's good' to mind blowing levels.

Mai-Otome is a guilty pleasure to me. Reason I love it so much is it created the most overpowered Otome ever: Lena Sayers. So maybe I should say S.ifr~ in particular.

To be honest I don't touch anime much. I'm more into manga.

Likes: Inuyasha, Black Lagoon, Gundam SEED, K-ON!

Dislikes: Gundam SEED Destiny

That's just about all the anime I've watched

SPARTAN: I more or less agree on Lucky Star. I didn't really mention it that much because it's faded from my mind to a large degree. After all, I only watched like part of the first episode...

Nuke: Ah, fair enough. Gotta ask though, was it just overpowered Lena that you liked, or did you like the writing issues a lot of Mai-Otome had as well? I'm curious because I'm trying to figure out whether you're a good person to recommend the trainwreck known as Code Geass to... (Code Geass is massively entertaining... but there's also a reason I don't include it in my top favorites list.)

Mikhail: I would advise you to steer clear of the manga for a couple of the series I recommended if you ever decide to check them out. Sometimes the manga is great and the anime sucks... and sometimes it's the other way around.

Piero: Lena was really a factor why I loved the anime so much. Arika was so dumb as a character early on so I got my dose of comedy. And yes I liked writing issues in a sense its soo bad its good. I still gave it a 10 on MyAnimeList for keeping me entertained.

You should definitely give Code Geass a shot then. It doesn't start to really fall apart til towards the end of the first season, but once it does, it falls apart gloriously. It's awesome. Not necessarily awesome in a good way, but still awesome. (There's a reason I didn't put it in my favorites list even though I found it massively entertaining...)

And yeah... Arika is dumb. But then again, so is the Mai-Otome re-imagining of Mai, so...

Oh wow, Nuke - thanks a billion for the summary

My likes - Old greats. El-Hazard, Slayers, Lost Universe, Saber Marionette, Macross, Gundam (One Year War stuff), Ghost in the Shell. Also, newer stuff like GSG, Elfen Lied, Black Lagoon and Vandread.

My dislikes - Naruto. 'Slice of life' shows. If I wanted to see 'slices of life', I'd just focus on my everyday existence. Also, any Gundam series that has nothing to do with the One Year War and its immediate aftermath is horse manure. Especially Wing.

I don't watch a whole lot of anime, but most of the ones I have watched, no one else I know (personally) has.

Elfen Lied: This is just an amazing show. I've watched it - what? Five times? And it is still just as awesome as the first time I watched it. Suffice to say, I was bawling my eyes out like a little kid! It's just so... brilliant, really. Unfortunately, none of the people I've shown Elfen Lied to have liked it. They're just crazy or something. I've actually written essays on this anime, on its deep themes and overall amazing design. Well done, Lynn Okamoto! You are a friggin' god among writers!

Gunslinger Girl: Yeah, why else would I be on this forum if I didn't like GSG!? However, like Elfen Lied, none of my friends like Gunslinger Girl. And they can't understand why I prefer little girls turned cyborg assassins to a show where a guy kills people with a magic book.

Toradora!: Easily the best comedy ever. I absolutely love how it manages to be completely hilarious, while still keeping a solid plot. It's just awesome. And Minori is literally made of win. She's just crazy awesome. If you haven't seen this show, watch it now. My only gripe is the second half of the series; where the show gets incredibly serious which, for an awesome romantic comedy that was actually very funny, is a terrible thing. So very, very disappointing, I must say. Plus, the really stupid, out of place ending.

Higurashi No Nak-I'mtoolazytotypeitout: Higurashi is a great show. It's funny, serious, and has interesting characters, like Toradora above. Unlike Toradora, the show is blatantly shown not to be a comedy. The plot is unique, and unlike other long animes, Higurashi keeps the same characters for the whole run, instead of introducing random people that you don't care about to fulfill a plot point. It also avoids the air of epicness that I really hate. A plot can be good without having to involve world changing events, people! Really, the scope is not very grand at all. The most riding on the conflict is a small village no one cares about. But yeah, go watch it.

SaiKano: This is the one anime that I have never in my life met someone else who has watched it. It also happens to be the very first anime I ever watched, barring Pokemon and DBZ. It's so very depressing, to be honest. And it's a great story. The characters have a lot of emotion, and it's kinda like GSG in a way; as the female lead is slowly becoming a heartless machine, and this affects her relationship with her completely average boyfriend. The art style is odd, but interesting, and the plot can seem slow at times, but this is definitely a show to see. Oh, and the ending of SaiKano still baffles me. What? Just... what the hell happened?

Dislikes:

Kanon: Just... no. My friend really likes this show, and he recommended it to me. I watched it, and I had to force myself to finish it all. It's just so boring! Plus, the supernatural elements of the series are really, really, really, stupid, in my opinion. Don't watch it.

Death Note: This anime is very well made. But I didn't like it. It is original, but there are quite a few things that I don't like about it. First, the epic scope. Later in the show, it becomes the epic anime that I so feverishly HATE. Also, the characters, while well developed, are not endearing at all. With Elfen Lied, I really felt about the characters. Death Note brought out no such emotion. The last, and one of the biggest, things I don't like about DN is the praise it gets. It's alright, but it's not that good! I absolutely despise how people say to me "Oh, why don't you like Death Note? It teh bestest anime evar!!!1!" That really gets on my nerves. It's like they think there's no way someone could dislike their favourite show. In simpler terms, they're fanboys of the most disgusting variety.

And to add a little to the verbosity of my post:

I have a funny story about how I came to watch my two favourite animes, Elfen Lied and Gunslinger Girl. With Gunslinger Girl, it happened many years ago, when I had just finished watching SaiKano. I brought the DVD back to the video store, and went to the Anime section to see if there were other good shows like it. One that intruiged me was a certain show that had, on the cover, a little girl holding a gun. "Gunslinger Girl". "Little girls with guns? That's just silly!" I thought to myself as I put the DVD case down. Fast forward a few years aaaaaand... Yeah. Here I am, and I think Gunslinger Girl is totally awesome. It's an odd world.

Now, for my Elfen Lied story: So, my friends and I were in our local CDPlus, where we buy all our anime. we were looking at the anime section, obviously, and we started talking. One of my friends brought up Elfen Lied. "Yeah, that's the one where the chick walks through a facility naked and kills people, right? I stopped watching after a few episodes." That simple synopsis caught my attention. That sounded so completely odd, I had to check it out. So we started talking about other anime, and Elfen Lied went unmentioned for about a week. I forgot to watch it, and I would have never watched it, if it wasn't for my friend asking a quick question on MSN: "Hey, in the Nightwish song Elvenpath (he's a huge fan of Nightwish, moreso than me), is it Leonard Nimoy speaking at one point?" As I had not listened to Elvenpath in a while, I went on YouTube and typed "Nightwish El", as I'm too lazy to type it all out, and rely on autocomplete to fill out the rest. Just for a split second, I looked at the suggestions, and one of them was "Nightwish Elfen Lied". Now, at that point, I remembered Elfen Lied, and decided, "Hey, I'm gonna watch that!". And I did. Guess what my favourite anime is? And it was all complete chance! I'm so incredibly lucky, it seems.

I hope you liked my oddball stories! And my opinions on several animes, of course.

I liked Saikano. It's not a favorite because it was too depressing (what happens?

Spoiler:

).

I adore Kanon, specifically because of the supernatural aspects.

I've never seen Saikano but I love Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu, which I've heard described as it's less depressing counterpart. In terms of three letter oem words, I've always gotten the impression it's more moe but less emo.

Regarding the supernatural elements in Kanon - personally, I like Makoto and especially Mai's arcs a lot but disliked Ayu's. That said, I I get the impression that there may be a culture gap at work here. I know Makoto's arc in Kanon is basically a modernized version of

Spoiler:

but I had to think about it some to realize that.

Overall, I liked Kanon - Clannad too. Air? Not so much.

I worshipped Air, even though it depressed me deeply. The only way I can handle it is to believe that the ending was the "Good" end where they break the curse. I have not seen the film and I do not intend to.

I should also note that when I speak of Kanon, I speak of the second series done by Kyoto in 2006-2007. I tried the original from 2002-2003 by Toei and I did not like it.

I also preferred Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu to Saikano. It was far, far less bleak.

As for CLANNAD, I didn't really like it. The first half was decent, but then it started to lose interest and by the end I was "meh" and have not bothered to buy it. I also did not like After Story except for Episode 6 ("Forever By Your Side") which I loved because it returned to the supernatural elements I love in Key's works.

Too name how many anime/manga series I like would prolly exceed the char. limit.

So here's some off the top of my head. Not a top's list, just what comes to mind in under 90 sec.

And...GO

-Iria: Zeiram the Animation
-Vampire Hunter D(both of them)
-Robot Carnival
-Tenchi Muyo(anything Tenchi Muyo except GXP I mean really WTF)
-Kanon(old Kanon, newer one had more eps. but was kinda meh)
-Speed Racer( FUCK YEAH! )
-Robotech/Macross
-Akira(old school Streamline "fight like a man" version)
-Wicked City
-Demon City Shinjuku
-Cromartie High School
-Milk Junkies
-Square of the Moon(an example of dubbed hentai done right)
-Coyote Ragtime
-One Piece
-Ai Yori Aoshi
-Absolute Boyfriend
-UnblancexUnbalance
-Haruhi (Manga and First Season)
-Sailor Moon (SHUT UP!!)
-Buttobi CPU(labeled Hentai, but really isn't)
-Bible Black( the whole damn series)
-Heartwork
-Ninja Scroll
-Afro Samurai
-Ghost in the Shell (this franchise has yet to disappoint me)
-Serial Experiments Lain
-Full Metal Alchemist
-The Dirty Pair series (even Flash was pretty good)
-Anejiru
-Ogenki Clinic
-Project A-ko series
-Women at Work
-Noir
-dot.//hack Twilight
-Black Lagoon
-Gunslinger Girl (of course)
-Viper GTS (watch this and I DARE you not to laugh)
-Damn near anything that comes out of Studio Ghibli

Outta time!!!

The rough list was put up and notes and spellchecking done later. So there, a short list of my faves in 90 sec.

As noted, a complete list would include hundreds of titles - and that's just what I like.

A handful of titles off of the top of my head that I can remember as really, really liking include:

Films

Macross: Do You Remember Love?
Robot Carnival (specifically Presence - I can't watch it anymore because I burst into tears)
Whisper of the Heart
Kiki's Delivery Service
Vampire Hunter D (1985)
Project A-Ko
Gall Force

Series / OAVs

Dirty Pair (1985)
Kimagure Orange Road
Air
Kanon (2006-2007)
Sora no Manimani
Ghost Stories (dub)
Ichigo Mashimaro
Minami-ke
Kino's Journey
Macross Zero
Patapata Hikousen no Bouken (Secret of Cerulean Sand)
RideBack

Nachtsider wrote:Oh wow, Nuke - thanks a billion for the summary

My likes - Old greats. El-Hazard, Slayers, Lost Universe, Saber Marionette, Macross, Gundam (One Year War stuff), Ghost in the Shell. Also, newer stuff like GSG, Elfen Lied, Black Lagoon and Vandread.

My dislikes - Naruto. 'Slice of life' shows. If I wanted to see 'slices of life', I'd just focus on my everyday existence. Also, any Gundam series that has nothing to do with the One Year War and its immediate aftermath is horse manure. Especially Wing.

What summary? So you werent a fan of Zeta at all (I am planing to watch New Translation since I dont have time to watch a 50 epper).

Nuke is Good wrote:

Nachtsider wrote:Oh wow, Nuke - thanks a billion for the summary

My likes - Old greats. El-Hazard, Slayers, Lost Universe, Saber Marionette, Macross, Gundam (One Year War stuff), Ghost in the Shell. Also, newer stuff like GSG, Elfen Lied, Black Lagoon and Vandread.

My dislikes - Naruto. 'Slice of life' shows. If I wanted to see 'slices of life', I'd just focus on my everyday existence. Also, any Gundam series that has nothing to do with the One Year War and its immediate aftermath is horse manure. Especially Wing.

What summary? So you werent a fan of Zeta at all (I am planing to watch New Translation since I dont have time to watch a 50 epper).

He must have mistook my summary of Higurashi for something you wrote up.

Anime I like:

I may as well start with the forum center, Gunslinger Girl, which is probably what really got me into anime.

Eureka Seven, which starts off as your typical mech anime, but it becomes quite beautiful. Worth noting that I'm not a big fan of mech aside from this and the next one...

Full Metal Panic, a curious mix of mech action and high school comedy that shouldn't work, but somehow does, well at that.

Fullmetal Alchemist. Another beautiful story. I feel the first anime is probably the best of the various titles. The manga, and by extension Brotherhood, just seem to drag on.

Azumanga Daioh, kooky fun, and some memorable characters.

K-ON for the same reason, though taken to the cuteness extreme.

Kara no Kyoukai, because it's just that awesome. I'm eagerly awaiting the DVD release and sub of the final movie.

Gacha Gacha, a manga only psudo-harem comedy. I feel it would do great with an anime adaptation, but I don't think there will ever be one.

Future Diary, the only title I can bring myself to buy from Tokyopop, because it is just that awesome. Possibly the most insane cast of characters I've ever seen grouped together into one place, and they're all trying to kill each other.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. A beautiful movie. It makes me cry every time.

Pandora Hearts, more of an anticipated addition, but I've only just started and I'm already loving it.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Kumeta is a black comedy genius. Everything that happens is just insane. I never would have thought something that starts off with the main character trying to hang himself would be so funny.

Honorable Mentions: Higurashi and Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Negima (the manga), Fruits Basket (the manga), Hayate the Combat Butler, and My Heavenly Hockey Club.

Anime I hate: This list isn't nearly as large, but there are a few titles that really piss me off.

Death Note. I know someone here is going to tear into me for it, because someone always does, but I hate this anime/manga series with a passion. Both Light and L get on my nerves so bad that I feel like kicking puppies, and that's just the start of it. But I'll spare you all the rant. It gets bad.

Black Butler (some of you may know it as Kuroshitsuji). Admittedly, I'm not far in it, but the lead, Sebastion is such a Jerkass Stu that I'm contemplating dropping it. Seriously, the entire cast, even the guys, act like they want to have his baby, and he treats them like crap. Not to mention that he can do all of their specialized jobs better than they can. Again, makes me want to kick puppies.

I"s. I was recommended this title by someone I used to think of as a friend (and no, the title has nothing to do with why I now hate him, but I won't get into that). The story itself isn't too bad, but the lead is such a pathetic loser that I can't stand it. He doesn't even have much of any real character developement. He makes the same stupid mistakes throughout the entire, overly drawn out, series. Said former friend uses it as a guidebook for life. I'm not even kidding.

Probit Return wrote:Future Diary, the only title I can bring myself to buy from Tokyopop, because it is just that awesome. Possibly the most insane cast of characters I've ever seen grouped together into one place, and they're all trying to kill each other.

I"s. I was recommended this title by someone I used to think of as a friend (and no, the title has nothing to do with why I now hate him, but I won't get into that). The story itself isn't too bad, but the lead is such a pathetic loser that I can't stand it. He doesn't even have much of any real character developement. He makes the same stupid mistakes throughout the entire, overly drawn out, series. Said former friend uses it as a guidebook for life. I'm not even kidding.

Hold on a moment. Has Mirai Nikki been made into an anime? Gasai Yuno FTW

And IMO I"s anime was lousy. It was one of those cases where the manga was so successful that some random studio decided to do up a few badly made episodes just to earn a quick buck. It does no justice to the manga at all

No, Mirai Nikki/Future Diary hasn't been made into an anime yet, sadly. I'd love to see one.

And as for I"s, I was talking about the manga. I hated it. I hear the OVAs cut out the best character, so I have no desire to watch them. Especially since I didn't like the manga.

Ggultra2764 wrote:He must have mistook my summary of Higurashi for something you wrote up.

Erk. I'm sorry!

Nuke - I liked Zeta. Like I said, any Gundam series that has nothing to do with the One Year War and its immediate aftermath is dead to me. Zeta does not come under that category.

Here's a couple more favorites:

Ga Rei Zero: The fantastic prequel to the mediocre supernatural manga Ga-Rei, Ga-Rei Zero tells the story of Kagura, a young girl from a family of powerful exorcists, and Yomi, an older girl from another exorcist family who essentially adopts her after her mother dies. It's also the story of Yomi's start of darkness, chroniciling how she went from being Kagura's cool big sis to being her foe on the battlefield. What makes the show brutally effective is how convincing and believable that transition ended up being. Some people didn't like this series due to its major tone shifts (due to taking a 'start at the end' approach the series basically went from incredibly dark to light hearted and back over the course of its run) however I didn't really mind the transitions because it did pretty much everything well, whether it was light humour or heavy emotional drama or awesome supernatural action sequences. The series is also notable for having a first episode that was part of an elaborate viral marketing campaign -the creators originally made it seem like they were going to have a completely seperate cast from the manga the series was based on, and in fact did -for the first episode. During which the new cast was pretty much completely massacred.

Macross Frontier: This series is a bit of a mixed bag overall, but at its best it is exceptionally good. It's got mind-blowingly awesome action sequences, great music, and a pretty good cast of characters. The writers for this one apparently liked playing around with anime stereotypes and characterisation trends. The main male character, for instance, takes the trend of using bishounen as lead characters in mecha shows to the next level -the first time one of the major female characters in the show meets him, she mistakes him for another girl! (Though to be fair it was kind of a circumstantial thing.) Despite this, said character was actually a pretty cool guy. It's too bad the show had some real lame bits mixed in among the awesomeness. But I guess if the entire series was as awesome as the best episodes were, it would probably kill the audience through overdose. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it doesn't change how awesome this show is in its best moments.

Ga-Rei Zero surprised me - in a good way.

And after Macross Seven, anything following would be Oscar material, but I agree I liked Macross Frontier. The animation was excellent, the characters believable and the story solid. Might have done better as a 13-episode series than a 26, since it could have packed in the drama and tension, jettisoning some of the fluff and filler. Though Ranka was the only logical choice for Alto.

Neither is a favorite (as in "buy worthy"), but I did enjoy watching them.

Piero wrote:The series is also notable for having a first episode that was part of an elaborate viral marketing campaign -the creators originally made it seem like they were going to have a completely seperate cast from the manga the series was based on, and in fact did -for the first episode.During which the new cast was pretty much completely massacred.

It's a pity it ended up that way. I wanted to watch it because of the first episode's cast, but when they killed them off I had no interest in continuing so I dropped the show.

I'm going to limit myself to five for each category. Haha.

Likes, in no order (I like the manga more than the anime for basically all of these...):
1. Vampire Knight
2. Gakuen Alice
3. Mushi Shi
4. Ouran
5. Bleach

Dislikes, also in no order. Some of these I used to like and then got really annoyed with...
1. Naruto
2. Fruits Basket
3. One Piece
4. Pokemon
5. Code Geass

To spice up this thread, I'll list some animes that I found surprisingly awesome:

Strike Witches: It's Strike Witches! Honestly, it's so completely ridiculous that it's awesome! Exclamation mark! There's a second season coming, ass well. I originally did not mean to type 'ass', I meant 'as', but I found it funny. I will definitely watch season two. Just because.

Star Ocean EX: Looks like a crappy game to anime conversion, but it's more. Surprisingly, it manages to fit every character into the show, with some disappearing for a while. It's not the best, especially the WTF ending, but it's surprisingly good. I'm actually kinda shocked that Star Ocean 2, not the most popular game, got an anime. Before FF7, even!

Star Ocean EX actually had an ending? I thought they cut it off early because fan response to the series was waning.

As for FF7, it's Squaresoft's holy grail; if they manage to fuck it up with a lousy remake or a cheesy anime they will lose whatever little credibility they have left as a competent game developer.

But Final Fantasy: Advent Children was awesome, luckily. There is a 'remake' of sorts, as well. It's coming to the PSP, like the first two Star Ocean games. So it'll most likely be incredibly awesome.

Edit: Huh. It's already out, according to this. The bad news is, it's apparently only avaliable to download on the PS3. You'll have to put it on your PSP from there. Not too hard to do, but I don't have a PS3. Yet another reason to get one, I guess. Though I honestly never will. Here's the link, if you want: http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6211227.html